Post by CSA FD on Nov 6, 2008 20:00:05 GMT -5

Missy Witt VanishesPolice say Missy Witt was the kind of daughter that every parent hopes for: she was attractive, popular, and serious about school. She wanted to be a dental hygienist, and worked part time at a local dentist's office.

But on December 1, 1994, something terrible happened. At about 5:00 p.m, Missy got off work and discovered that her car wouldn't start. She was waiting with a friend when a Good Samaritan from a local business helped jump her car.

At around 5:45 p.m, Missy stopped at the house she shared with her mom to make a pit stop. She changed out of her work clothes and decided to surprise her mom, Mary Ann Witt, for dinner. Mary Ann bowled on a league at one of the local bowling alleys, so Missy drove to meet her.

Between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m, Missy arrived at Bowling World, but she never made it inside to surprise her mother. Cops believe that a man was waiting in the parking lot, hunting for a victim. They think he approached Missy, and a struggle ensued when she rejected him. That struggle didn't last long, because the assailant hit her in the head with a blunt object, then dragged her to his car, where he probably put her in the trunk or truck bed.

The only clues left at the scene were a gold hoop earring, a crushed hair clip, her car keys, and pools of blood. Missy's car was found at the bowling alley two days after she was reported missing. Her keys had been picked up and turned into the front desk of the bowling alley; they were found to have traces of blood on them.

Cops believe someone moved her from the killer's intended resting place. Missy's Body Discovered In Ozark MountainsOn January 13, 1995, two trappers hunting near Turner's Bend in the Ozark National Forest discovered the body of a young woman. Through dental records, cops identified the body as Missy's.

She was found nude, lying face down in the woods, in front of a rock resembling a headstone. Cops believe someone moved her from the killer's intended resting place.

Two days before her body was found, cops working the night shift at the local police department received a recorded voice mail message. On the message were two people with heavy Southern accents.

A female urged a man, apparently her grandson, to tell the police what he had found. The man panicked, afraid he would be blamed for the murder, and hung up the phone.

Police believe this phone call is significant. From indentations made at the crime scene, they believe the killer had actually placed Missy's body behind the headstone-like rock.

Cops believe the man who made this call discovered Missy's body in the woods, and moved it out from behind the rock so that she would be found. Cops would like to speak to the people who made this phone call.

There are some important clues police hope will lead to the killer of Missy Witt. In addition to the items left at the parking lot, and the anonymous voice message, cops found cigarette butts and papers near where her body was found.

They don't know if these are significant clues, or just items left by the hunters who roamed the National Forest. What investigators think might be more significant than what was found at the crime scene, is what was missing.

The killer had taken Missy's long-sleeved v-neck shirt, blue jeans, undergarments, purse, wallet, remaining gold hoop earring, and brown-banded Mickey Mouse watch. Cops are looking for anyone who might know the current whereabouts of these items.

AMW Joins The Hunt For A KillerPolice want to find this killer before he hurts another young woman. Because of the nature of the time, investigators believe Missy might not be the killer's first, or last, victim.

They believe the killer was familiar with the area, whether he was a local, or came into the area from out of state to hunt. Investigators also believe the rock near where Missy was found holds some significance to the killer.

For 14 years, cops chased down hundreds of leads, interviewed every witness they could find, and looked into suspects from neighboring states involved in similar murders, but still had no answers.

Fort Smith Police are now teaming up with John Walsh and the AMW team to find nd that one clue that could break this case open.

"THE DEAD CANNOT CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE IT IS A DUTY OF THE LIVING TO DO SO FOR THEM" Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness These are the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence for each of us; EXCEPT IF YOU ARE MURDERED YOU NO LONGER HAVE ANY RIGHTS. Someone took them and now THEIR RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED. is a tradgedy that doesnt help the victims or their families heal.

Post by CSA FD on Jan 14, 2010 5:15:49 GMT -5

Body Of Girl Found 15 Years Ago Today

Jan. 13, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 10:07 AM CST

Today marks the 15-year anniversary of the day local, state and federal authorities converged on a wooded area in the Ozark National Forest in the Turner Bend community of Franklin County where the body of a young female was discovered.

Melissa “Missy” Witt’s body was discovered on Jan. 13, 1995, — more than six weeks after she disappeared from the parking lot of Bowling World, 6100 S. 36th St., on Dec. 1, 1994.Witt was a 19-year-old Westark Community College student when she disappeared from the parking lot. Her white 1995 Mitsubishi Mirage was located in the northwest corner of the parking lot on Dec. 3.

She had driven there Dec. 1 for dinner with her mother, who played in a bowling league.

The Arkansas State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Fort Smith Police Department have open cases on the abduction and homicide.

Dale Best, a retired major with the Arkansas State Police, recently said authorities received a call from Franklin County Sheriff Kenneth Ross on Jan. 13, 1995, and were told the body of a young female had been found by hunters in the area.

While he knew the possibility of finding Witt alive more than 48 hours after she disappeared was statistically low, Best, as other investigators did, hoped to find her alive and reunite her with her family and friends.

“We tried everything we could think of,” Best said.

Police contacted Russian authorities for satellite images of the bowling alley and the forest area where Witt was located, said Jay C. Rider, a retired captain with the Fort Smith Police Department.

Law enforcement officers figured Russia would have the images because Fort Chaffee was in close proximity and that would be an area they would have kept under surveillance.

There were satellite images, but not at the particular times for which law enforcement needed them, Rider said.

Video cameras set up at the site where Witt’s body was found captured images of people, vehicles and license plate numbers in the days following the discovery, Best said.

Interview after interview after interview. Several hundred leads exhausted.

“That case was really depressing because you want to resolve a case no matter what,” said Best, who still thinks about the case every few days. “Whoever did this is a creep. He’s a worthless S.O.B.”

As the years go by, the case has changed hands many times at the Fort Smith Police Department. Detective Tammy DeMier was assigned to Witt’s cold case several months ago.

“We still have leads,” DeMier said. “People will still call in kind of sporadically.”

She has followed up leads — most recently one of them leading her to Pine Bluff in the days after the case was profiled on “America’s Most Wanted.”

But again, nothing.

DeMier is spending every spare moment when she is not working new cases trying to gather everything on the Witt case and organize it in one place so that if there has been something overlooked, she will find it.

Evidence in the case has been analyzed at the Arkansas State Crime Lab, a North Texas University lab and the FBI. DeMier is gathering those reports to determine if anything else in the case can be analyzed.

Mary Ann Witt, 74, hopes that she will see her daughter’s killer brought to justice.

Not a day goes by that Witt doesn’t see someone who reminds her of her only child. It might be a show on television about missing persons or just random memories that pop up and cause tears to well up in her eyes.

“She will forever be alive in my heart,” said Witt.

Recently, Witt wrote down what she remembers most about her daughter.

She misses seeing her daughter with big curlers in her hair, talking excitedly on the telephone to a friend. Missy would call her mom from work and say, “Hi, mom, what’s for dinner?” She also misses their lunch dates on days when Missy would pick her up from work or after church on Sundays.

“She was a ray of sunshine from the day she was born,” said Mary Ann Witt. “I hurt every time I go to a mall because she loved to shop, and I still see things I would love to buy for her. Every beautiful day or (bit of) happiness I enjoy is tinged with an ache because my heart says she should be enjoying this.”

Mary Ann Witt believes if God assigned her daughter a job in heaven, it would most likely be as part of the greeting committee.

She would say, “Hello. My name is Melissa. Welcome to heaven,” Mary Ann Witt said.

"THE DEAD CANNOT CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE IT IS A DUTY OF THE LIVING TO DO SO FOR THEM" Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness These are the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence for each of us; EXCEPT IF YOU ARE MURDERED YOU NO LONGER HAVE ANY RIGHTS. Someone took them and now THEIR RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED. is a tradgedy that doesnt help the victims or their families heal.